A vehicle including in its rear body a storage section for storing a spare tire in a vertical position is proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 11-11359. The rear body with the storage section will be described with reference to FIGS. 10A and 10B hereof.
As shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B, the spare tire 103 is held upright by means of a flange 104 in a boot 102 provided in a rear part of the body 101. The flange 104 is attached to a side panel 106 of the body 101. A load transferring member 107 is attached to the flange 104.
When a rear end panel 108 encounters a collision from the rear, by a load coming from behind, as identified by arrow A, the load transferring member 107 causes the spare tire 103 to turn about the flange 104 in the direction of arrow B toward the side panel 106 to thereby make a rear side member 109 crush.
However, upon turning of the spare tire 103 as arrowed by B, the spare tire 103 interferes with the side panel 106, thus restricting the turning of the spare tire 103. Consequently, the amount of crush of the rear side member 109 is limited. Thus, a vehicle rear body structure with increased impact absorbing capability is demanded.